Oct 20, 2013

Madison is having a Halloween party in school and I'm in charge of bringing the cupcakes, so I thought cake balls would be perfect for 4 year olds – and less mess than icing on cupcakes. For an easy Halloween theme I decided to go with mummies and I think they turned out pretty darn cute. These are super easy – if I can make them so can you!

Cake pops were made popular by the very talented Bakerella who I'm actually going to meet next week, I'm so excited! Her cake pops are just darling and if you ever buy her books she's got tons of ideas. The traditional method of making cake pops is by crumbling cake with frosting and forming them into balls. My skinny version is so much quicker – I simply use a cake pop pan.

I played around with a few cake pop pans and machines out there and
realized they are not all created equal. After testing out several, I had the most success with the Nordicware cake pop pan, which is only about $17 at Target. I actually own two so I can bake them both at the same time.

These are FAR lighter than traditional cake pops, but
you'll still need some self control as they are dipped in white chocolate. Candy melts (available at Michael's) were used to coat the balls. They usually melt perfect for me but this time it was a little thicker than I liked so I had to add a drop of oil to thin it out. I may play around with other brands of white chocolate to see which melts the best.

One tip from making these several times: if you don't need to decorate so many cake balls you can bake them all and decorate what you need, then freeze the rest. Then thaw them to use for another day.

Combine the cake mix, yogurt, 1 cup water and egg whites in a large mixing bowl and beat until combined. Place the batter into a pastry bag or large ziplock bag with the tip cut off.

Pipe the batter into the prepared cake pop pan and bake about 18 minutes (I rotated the pan after 10 minutes to be sure they baked evenly). Let it rest 5 minutes before opening the pan.

Place the cake balls on a wire rack and repeat with remaining batter. Using a scissor, cut the seam off the balls.

Refrigerate the cake balls for about 45 minutes, this helps the chocolate stick to the cake.

Melt some of the chocolate in the microwave according to package
directions, careful not to over heat the chocolate. If it's too thick
add a drop of oil to thin out. Use the wooden skewer and insert into the cake ball, then dip in melted
chocolate. Let the excess drip off then place each ball on parchment or
wax paper.

Place remaining chocolate into a piping bag and drizzle onto the tops of the balls to make a criss-cross effect to resemble a mummy wrap.

Place the mini chocolate chips over the chocolate for eyes and set aside to dry.

Makes 48-50 balls.

*I weighed the chocolate on each ball to calculate the nutritional info. Although the recipe calls for 48 oz of chocolate, not all of it will be used, but you will still need to buy extra so you have enough to coat the cake balls. I calculated 0.4 oz of chocolate on each cake ball.

The pan comes with two sides, you just put the batter on one side because the second half has a hole to allow for it to be baked. The two pans attach and the batter when it gets baked expands into the shape of the pan. At the end, you end up with a ball when the two halves are separated after cooling.

I've been searching for something cute and fun to take to my office halloween pot-luck and these look perfect! I was wondering how I could bake these without buying a cake pop pan since I'm not a frequent baker?

Skinnytaste is my go-to for all recipes but when I saw these I knew they would be perfect for my kids pre-school Halloween party! Quick tip- if you regfridgerate the batter before baking, ( I did overnight) the balls come out much more perfect and round :) thank you Gina for your wonderful recipes! ( 56 lbs GONE!!)!!